Walls Village, Voe House

This two-storey-and-attic house 18th century house is roofless and partly ruinous. Its front (E) face contains a central doorway with two flanking windows but also two blocked earlier windows. There are also two ground-floor windows in the W side and fireplaces in both gables at ground-floor, first-floor and attic level. A small outshot is attached to the rear of the house and what has probably been a stable adjoins the S end. It has a doorway and a small window in its E side. The house abuts the S gable of two, probably 19th century, semi-detached houses.

In the improved field to the S of the house and outbuildings, and in the northern part of the field of rough pasture S of it, there are the fragmentary remains of a field system that includes a number of parallel banks and scarps running down the slope from E to W, and low scarps running across the slope. Some of these features equate with field boundaries depicted on the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Shetland 1882 & 1903, sheet XLVI), and it is also likely that at least some of the clearance cairns present date from around this time. A track, which led from the steading down the hill to a cottage and pier (HU24NW 166), which is also shown on the OS maps, is still in use by farm vehicles but it is now completely grass-grown.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, ARG) 9 June 2010.

Change from cottage to house based on field observation by JRS and ARG 9 June 2010.